The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-06-29
WHITE SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA
Miners Who Are Threatened as II
They We're Dogs-"P1uck Me-
Stores and Cut-throat Leases.

A correspondent of The New York
Herald telegraphs from Wilkesbarre,
Pa, as follows: Not one word sent
nut concerning the condition of the
Itriking miners at the Hazelbrook col
iery of S. Wentz &c Co., their griev-
lnces and their oppression, has been
,verdrawn.
To-day your correspondent spent
iome hours among the miserable novels
which are herded the men who work
or the company. In no other way can
IN idea be gained of the condition to
which these unfortunates have been
;educed by years of systematic oppres-
sion.
The colliery is situated in the heart
If the wilderness, some two miles from
he line of the Hazeton division of the
Iehigh Valley railroad. About four
hundred yards from the colliery, scat
cred amid rock and tree stumps stand
1 collection OF shanties, some twenty
five in number, each containing two
rooms and little extension, which
answers the purpose of kitchen. The
houses are built OF rough hemlock
boards and are elevated some four feet
above the ground. In the floors and
walls are gaping cracks between the
boards through which you cold thrust
,our head.
In these nuts, with wind, rain and
snow driving through the crevices, the
miners and their families have to eX-
st the year around.
They have no option--for two miles
every direction there arc no other
houses. The company, though it does
not own the land, controls it under
ease. They will not suitcase one foot
of'it, and, even had the poor miner the
means, he Is given no chance of making
for himself better home.
But the company has taken effective
means to prevent him ever getting the
means to live better where he is or
move to better places. The Ubiquitous
;ompany-store system, the evils OF
which were so glazing that the lesisla-
.uro of Pennsylvania forbade it under
heavy penalty, is in vogue here in its
worst and most oppressive form. The
company have established store at
which they claim to sell everything
needed, and have issued their fiat that
The men must trade nowhere else.
They have also cllectually taken it
out of the power of the men to go else
where if they wished. Completely con-
trolling the land, they have forbidden
any other merchant or dealer to come
On the ground, and il the men purchase
goods elsewhere they cannot have them
delivered. There is no public roads
through the land, and several merchants
in Freeland and other ncighboring
towns who sought to sell their goods to
the miners have been warned, under
penalty of arrest for trespass, not to
venture on the company's land,
The company thus enjoys a perfect
monopoly Of tho trade, and can oXtort
what they please. They charge fully
20 per cent. more than the regular rate
for all goods sold, and--in direct viola
ton of the law of the state-deduct the
bills from the miners pay.
Besides the deductions for store sup
plies the miners rent, his powder, oil,
coal, use of team to haul the coal. his
board, if he Is single man, and even
the charges for the priest and doctor
(who are paid monthly by the company
to look after the spiritual and physical
welfare OF the mem, arc deducted from
the miners pay. No matter now much
man may earn in q month the de-
auctions invariably amount to as much
or more than his wages, and il is an
actual fact that out of fourteen men
spoken TO by your correspondent not
one had received cent of money for
nine months for wages earned, except
one, who few days ago received
81. So
Thus deprived of everything but the
bare necessities of life. never allowed
to obtain possession of few dollars to
enable them TO better their condition.
what are the men TO do? They can do
nothing but submit to the shameful
system of oppression,
Six months ago the men commenced
to join the Knights of Labor. The
foreman exerted all the pressure posi-
bic on men known to be Knights and
succeeded in getting many TO withdraw
The engineer, Frank Steele. refused to
leave the order and shortly afterward
was discharged, ostensibly for negli-
gence. The men believes. he had been
victim zed and demanded his reinstalc-
ment. This was refused and strike
followed
Then the company proceeded to
show their power. Miserable as are
the huts in VIII ell the men live they
can only gain the right TO occupy them
by signing leases which place them